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The more weed that teens consume at a younger age, the more problems they tend to have later in life. Adolescence is a sensitive time for brain development, if a teen introduces use of marijuana at that point in their life, it could very well have serious consequences for their ability to problem solve, for their memory and for critical thinking in general and those consequences are permanent, and irreversible.. Teenagers who smoke weed damage their brains for LIFE and may be more likely to develop such mental illness’s such as schizophrenia!

Why? Because the brain is still forming during teenage and young-adult years. The tissue itself is still developing connections between brain regions and producing the cells that process information. Neurodevelopment is particularly active during childhood and adolescence. Regular use of weed during that time has been linked to permanent problems with memory, learning, perception, impulse control, and more. It is true that a very clear relationship between teenage pot use and decreased cognitive function and mental health is demonstrated across the scientific community. Researchers say that marijuana is particularly dangerous for a group of teens who have a genetic susceptibility to the mental health disorder schizophrenia – and it could be the trigger for it.

The study in the link above, which appeared in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, sought to distinguish the effects of daily marijuana use on the adolescent brain from the effects of schizophrenia on the deep regions of the brain that are necessary for working memory. Schizophrenia is a very disruptive illness on working memory, and a kid using weed regularly, produced many similar effects on the brain to schizophrenia. Researchers found that teens who smoked a lot of weed had abnormal changes in their brain structures related to working memory — a predictor of weak academic performance and impaired everyday functioning — and that they did poorly on memory-related tasks. The scientists noted that these effects were still apparent two years after their subjects had stopped using marijuana.

While the study focused on heavy marijuana users — specifically, those who indulged daily for about three years — one of its most crucial findings related not to the amount of weed an adolescent smoked, but when he or she started: The earlier the drug was taken up, the worse the effects on the brain.

Marijuana is the ideal compound to screw up everything for a kid, If they are into athletics, a chess player, on the debating team or an artist, you need working memory, and marijuana hurts the brain circuitry in that area if it is still developing, permanently.

Researchers at Duke University concluded a study a couple of years ago of more than 1,000 people from the time they were born until they reached the age of 38. Studies were performed periodically throughout their lives, and were carefully controlled to ensure test subjects did not have any other drug or alcohol addictions or psychological disorders, and were not high at the time of the test. They found that those who used pot more than once weekly before age 18 displayed more severely impaired intelligence, slower reaction times, shorter attention spans, and poorer listening skills than those who began using marijuana after age 18. https://today.duke.edu/2012/08/potiq

‘The Lancet Psychiatry‘ reported the following statistics on teens who smoked marijuana daily …60% less likely to complete high school than those who never use.60% less likely to graduate college.18 times more likely to become dependent on marijuana.8 times more likely to use other hard illegal drugs in the future.7 times more likely to attempt suicide.http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366%2814%2970307-4/abstract

It’s not just daily use. According to the researchers behind the study, teens who used cannabis just monthly were also at risk of underachievement.

According to a recent study at the University of Maryland Medical Center, published in the Neuropsychopharmacology, the study’s senior author Asaf Keller, Ph.D., Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, “Previous research has shown that children who started using marijuana before the age of 16 are at greater risk of permanent cognitive deficits, and have a significantly higher incidence of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. There likely is a genetic susceptibility, and then you add marijuana during adolescence and it becomes the trigger.” “Adolescence is the critical period during which marijuana use can be damaging,” says the study’s lead author, Dr Sylvina Mullins Raver, Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology,
The scientists began by examining cortical oscillations in mice. Cortical oscillations are patterns of the activity of neurons in the brain and are believed to underlie the brain’s various functions. These oscillations are very abnormal in schizophrenia and in other psychiatric disorders. The scientists exposed young mice to very low doses of the active ingredient in marijuana for 20 days, and then allowed them to return to their siblings and develop normally.“In the adult mice exposed to marijuana ingredients in adolescence, we found that cortical oscillations were grossly altered, and they exhibited impaired cognitive abilities,” says Dr. Raver. “We also found impaired cognitive behavioral performance in those mice. The striking finding is that, even though the mice were exposed to very low drug doses, and only for a brief period during adolescence, their brain abnormalities persisted into adulthood.”

The scientists repeated the experiment, this time administering marijuana ingredients to adult mice that had never been exposed to the drug before. Their cortical oscillations and ability to perform cognitive behavioral tasks remained normal, indicating that it was only drug exposure during the critical period of adolescence that impaired cognition through this mechanism. The researchers took the next step in their studies, trying to pinpoint the mechanisms underlying these changes and the time period in which they occur.

“We looked at the different regions of the brain,” says Dr. Keller. “The back of the brain develops first, and the frontal parts of the brain develop during adolescence. We found that the frontal cortex is much more affected by the drugs during adolescence. This is the area of the brain that controls executive functions such as planning and impulse control. It is also the area most affected in schizophrenia.”

Dr. Keller’s team believes that the results have indications for humans as well. They will continue to study the underlying mechanisms that cause these changes in cortical oscillations. “The purpose of studying these mechanisms is to see whether we can reverse these effects,” says Dr. Keller. “We are hoping we will learn more about schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, which are complicated conditions. These cognitive symptoms are not affected by medication, but they might be affected by controlling these cortical oscillations.”

Many groups of scientists have studied the brains of teenagers, too. Compared to those who never used pot, the tissue in the brains of young pot users has been shown to exhibit structural changes. Specifically, the white matter (the cells in our brains that connect different areas) is more porous in subjects that began regularly using pot at a young age, a physical state associated with slower mental processing. Gray matter (the cells in the brain responsible for processing information) showed changes in shape and size, alterations that are associated with executive dysfunction, mood issues, and poor memory. In addition, the brains of teenagers who are heavy pot users have lower blood flow, develop abnormal neuron connections, and show inefficient brain activation patterns. All of these physical features are associated with poor memory, attention, impulse control, organization, and time management.

Teenagers who use weed daily have increased rates of depression, anxiety, and psychosis later in life. (Psychosis means someone has lost connection with reality—i.e., they see and/or hear things that don’t exist.), psychosis and heavy pot use in adolescence are linked.

Teens and Dopamine

For the same reason weed makes adults feel good: It releases dopamine into the brain. When you get high, dopamine signals tell your neurons that it feels good and you should do it again. Dopamine does the same thing when you have sex, listen to music you enjoy, or eat junk food. Dopamine is part of the pleasure/reward system in the brain, which is actively developing until adulthood; messing with it during adolescence can cause damage. Decreased dopamine signals in teenage pot smokers’ brains have been observed after prolonged use, meaning getting high becomes more difficult. In other words, the more weed a teen smokes now, the less happy weed will make him or her over time. And without weed, definitely unhappy, for his dopamine levels are low, permanently. It takes the joy of life away. This can make teenagers who use heavily more prone to depression, anxiety, addiction and even suicide..So What About Adult Weed Users?

After the brain has finished developing, it is not vulnerable since neurodevelopment is basically complete. Toking up at a young age has a different effect on the brain than toking up as an adult. So have no worries, all is good.

McChronalds very strict policy – 21 years and over only- Let me tell you about Ron…

Let me tell you just a few things about Ron, theCEO, CFO, COO, GM, Quality control officer, Chief Buyer, bookkeeper, Picker, packer, shipper man of many hats. He is a very, very busy man (Honestly, he needs a vacation, bad), he had a disaster a few months back, leaving him short staffed (Also feeling betrayal), to say the least. Now, one of the things that sets McChronalds apart from the competition, is the initial phone call you must have with him, personally. One of the major reason’s for the call is to make sure you are at least 21, due diligence, and he has his ways of knowing, from what you say, or answer. You can’t con the man, you can’t fuck around with a guy who has gone through ‘the school of hard knocks’, and has been around the block several times.HE WILL KNOW YOU ARE UNDER 21, PERIOD, in a second. Woe is he the punk who tried to con Ron on the phone, I can almost hear his wrath now, berating the kid, telling him why, from authority, the truths about weed and his young mind. He doesn’t have to take all that extra time on the phone weeding out the brain damaged punks when he is running shorthanded a very busy, challenging business that is very customer service oriented requiring same day shipping on all orders. He can make a lot more money by turning a blind eye, no vetting call, no registration required, yes, cash is OK.

Now you know why he also has the policy of never shipping to college or university residence’s, those immature, morally fucked up places at times, with most students being under 21. Yep, he wont be part of fucking up a college kids head up for life either. Ron won’t ship to a school address for the same reason as the phone call. Why? Because he cares, it isn’t about the money with him, the business is his passion, he wants to do the right thing, period. He don’t want to be even partially responsible for fucking some kids brains up for life, for money.

Now, all I will say about the competition out there, well, check out their sites, no registration, they take cash, no phone call.What does that tell you my friends? Who is the honorable one, who do you want to do business with.

Ron will never short count you, in fact, weigh your order, I will admit I have a couple of times scaled it, only because by eye, I saw there was extra, and there was. After almost 40 years buying weed, I can eyeball a good 1/4 oz count or a short count. That’s Ron. Any problem you might have, he will rectify it, plus some. The weed; It is what it is, and nothing else, guaranteed. The other sites, they sell B-grade and even C-grade, wtf? Only AAA+ with Ron.

Many others seem to realize that Ron is a busy man, I hear it in the forums when you are understanding why Ron might be a little late on a phone call or email, or whatever, Most of you are understanding and have been cool, you are all good people. Emailing and Phone calls are difficult at times when you are the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, General Manager, Chief Buyer, Quality Assurance officer, Human Resources, Picker, Packer, Shipper, HR manager and 15 more hats and training 2 people to boot, running McChronalds, basically solo. My friends, that’s what sets McChronalds apart from the others. This is why I ask you my friends, to be loyal, to make that 2nd or 5th order because it says to Ron, Thank You bro, for being there for me, for being honorable.

I think that parents have an obligation — to be even more pointed with our children by saying to them: “If you’re tempted to smoke weed, please hold off as long as you possibly can. Your beautiful brain is still developing.”

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